John Reed burst across the culture and politics of the early 20th century like a rocket and his first-hand accounts of the Mexican and Russian revolutions became a foundation for modern journalism. You may have heard of him from the Academy Award winning movie Reds about the intellectual and passionate love affair between Reed and his wife Louise Bryant.

His work sounds a lot like Carl Sandburg in it's solid blue collar American way and his Proud New York is at once bitter and sweet; a pleasure alloyed with pain considering the events of September 11th 2001. There is a presence of and examination of Reed's own thoughts and feelings in this poetical piece there is not any evidence of his political life. The disappearance of Reed's verse may be in part due to his viewpoints, but many a poet who published a book or two in 1914 was forgotten by 1920.

Sources:

Blair, Bob:http://www.geocities.com/~bblair/011022.htm

Party:www.w3.pl/~wasp/reed.html

Public domain text taken from The Poets’ Corner:
http://www.geocities.com/~bblair/jrproudnewyork.htm